Planning a Fresh Start

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Tips for Principals

BY PAUL G. YOUNG, PH.D.

In response to the tumultuous 2-3 years of COVID-19 related upheavals, unprecedented stress, mandates, and more, there have been many calls for a great reset, or a fresh start. The pandemic impacted five important categories of the world’s interconnectedness: the economic, societal, geopolitical, environmental, and technological factors.1 Political discussions surrounding these influences have dominated the news. Dictates have impacted numerous aspects of adult and student life. Despite many problems, many positive initiatives have emerged in schools that focus on increased inclusivity, equity, resources, and respect for Mother Nature. Responses to COVID-19 forced good and bad change. Seeking a sense of normalcy, there are significant numbers of people who yearn for a reset back to pre-pandemic times. That’s a predictable response during a time when a polarized nation experiences unprecedented inflation, record crime statistics, and increasing concerns about the mental health of our citizenry, especially our children. Many people view the past as better times and yearn for a fresh start.

What Does a Fresh Start Mean?

Do the discussions imply a clean slate? Is “fresh start” an idiom for “out with the old and in with the new?” Or does it refer to turning the pages of time – to new involvements and activities? How do you know what, or who, needs a fresh start? Is a fresh start future-focused or is it a reset and return to better (or worse) times from the past?

As much as you might want, we can’t bring the past back. We can gain valuable insights through reflection and mastering timetested practices. We can consider the wisdom of elders based on their learned experience. Yet, success and failure must be evaluated in the present realities. The decades of the twenties and beyond will be much different than that of the teens and decades before. Each generation experiences the world in unusual ways and is shaped by events as they occur. How individuals (and their generational peers) react and respond characterizes their worth – particularly for those who choose to be in roles of leadership.

What Your Community Wants to See and Hear

Regardless of your worldview related to COVID-19, you have an ongoing responsibility to develop a school culture that promotes optimum learning conditions for students and parents and pleasurable working conditions for adults. Focus on clarifying values, beliefs, norms, traditions, relationships, and everyone’s sense of belonging. Frankly, every start to a school year is a fresh start – for students, parents, staff, and your entire learning community. Leaders need to let go of past grievances, replicate what works, and change what does not. You can shape your learning community or be shaped by it. Which do you prefer? And as principals, your voice always should be heard in any “fresh start” discussions that impact schools.

Three Steps to a Fresh Start

Whether it is a routine start of a new year, or a response to a major world event, how should you respond and what do you need to be saying? Try this – “you must pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again.” To do that,

1. Pick yourself up. Focus on your own self-care. You cannot provide care and lead others if you are not physically, mentally, and spiritually in good health. Spend time reflecting on what has worked and what needs changed. Surround yourself with people

who possess a growth mindset, share an attitude of gratitude, and together will pace each other while moving forward in positive strides.

2. Dust yourself off. Clean, organize, and restructure your policies and practices that need updated and improved. Focus on the most important things. Manage your regrets. Social psychology author Daniel Pink suggests that a good life has a singular focus (forward) and an unwavering valence (positive). In The Power of Regret, he writes, “Regret perturbs both. It is backward-looking and unpleasant—a toxin in the bloodstream of happiness.” We shouldn’t avoid our regrets. Instead, we should embrace them, dust them off, and learn from them. Read Pink’s book to learn how.

3. Start all over again. If you feel like you’ve been knocked down and beaten up, you have a choice to stay down or get back up. Principals face these feelings all the time. To rise again you must choose the right mindset, motivate yourself, and formulate a sharp vision of what lies in the future. In the aftermath of crises such as the pandemic, we must face our fears and anxieties. It is great opportunity for introspection. Trying times, whether coping with a pandemic or simply dealing with a difficult person, force us to ask the questions that truly matter and can also make us more creative in our responses. We often emerge from darkness better than we were before.

It’s Never Too Late to Reset

Why a Fresh Start is Good

A fresh start brings a boost of energy and enthusiasm that is an incredible catalyst for positive initiatives. Fresh starts can motivate you to get things done, drop habits that were not productive, and form new ones that are better aligned with your goals and values. Remember the famous quote from industrialist Henry Ford, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” Initiating a fresh start requires the leader to convince followers to leave their comfort zones.

Principals Initiate Fresh Starts All the Time

Whether it is the incorrigible, disruptive, unresponsive student, the teacher who cannot manage a class, or the bombastic, threatening parent, principals continuously interact with individuals who have been knocked down, hurt, demoralized, and need help getting back up. Each situation and individual you encounter is different, yet the secrets to the process of unshackling habits and changing behavior has been outlined in numerous books – two of the best being The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg and Atomic Habits by James Clear. These are must-reads for principals. The difficult part of initiating a fresh

start, and getting your staff to collaborate and join your vision of innovation, is gaining their buy-in for endeavors that form habits and shape positive behavior. As brothers Chip and Dan Heath explained in their book, Made to Stick, innovative ideas and strategies for implementing a fresh start have six qualities: (1) simplicity, (2) some unexpectedness – the ability to capture attention, (3) concreteness – clear and thorough understanding, (4) credibility, (5) emotional appeal, and (6) relatable stories. If you plan to communicate a vision of a fresh start, this book will help you transform the way people think and act. As the pandemic recedes, some people are worried that the lockdowns, restrictions, and time kids spent at home will result in a myriad of missed opportunities. No doubt, there are losses. But if people focus only on the negative, they undoubtedly will miss chances to make solid gains. The end of the pandemic is probably a more opportune time for meaningful change than when you were experiencing the heightened anxiety of lockdowns. During the last several years that “If people focus only I worked as an adjunct professor on the negative, they at Ohio University-Lancaster, I became increasingly concerned undoubtedly will miss chances to make solid and frustrated with my aspiring education students who appeared to lack interest in learning and any gains. The end of the sense of persistence when things got hard. As I stood in front of pandemic is a more opportune time for them, I’d see ineffective habits of poor eye contact, inattentiveness, minimal initiative, and a general meaningful change.” lack of participation. I was discouraged. I spent hours reflecting and reading books for ideas for a reset. When I found Eric Chester’s Reviving Work Ethic: How to End Entitlement Mentality & Create an Environment of Achievement, my vision became clear as to what I needed to do to initiate a fresh start. I concluded that my students lacked a clear understanding of a work ethic. I was perturbed with the learned habits that I was observing from them, but then realized that they had no idea that their conduct and classroom performance was irritating me. To help them develop a healthy work ethic, I started teaching and clarifying my expectations. I taught ten virtues: attitude, commonsense, competencies, gratitude, initiative, integrity, persistence, professionalism, reliability, and responsibility. Within weeks, I was a better teacher, and they became more attentive, harder working students. The “fresh start” ideas embedded in these virtues helped them and me. With a consistent focus on teaching what I expected to see, the concepts and initiatives stuck. Teaching college students became fun once again. You might consider how the tips from this story could be applied to your students and/or your staff.

Whatever is irritating you can be changed and fixed for the better. Considering the disruptions of the pandemic, many of our youngest students were never taught or had opportunities to experience essential components of social and emotional learning. A fresh start might involve starting from scratch to teach the positive behaviors you expect in your school – to students, staff, and parents. The teaching must be continuous, persistent, and positive. Perhaps you need a fresh start to rebuild relationships with parents. Following Edward Deming’s the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) method is a way to assess a change that is being implemented. The Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle is shorthand for planning a proposal, trying it, observing the results, and acting on what is learned. This is the scientific method, used for action-oriented learning.

At the top of every fresh start “to-do” list for principals should be targeted calendar dates with plans to intentionally connect with your colleagues through OAESA and NAESP activities for the purpose of gathering fresh ideas and support. When inventive minds gather, especially with diverse backgrounds, anything can and will be accomplished. Have fun starting fresh! Recommended Reading Chester, E. (2012). Reviving Work Ethic: How to End Entitlement Mentality & Create an Environment of Achievement. Austin, TX: Greenleaf Book Group LLC. Clear, J. (2018). Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones. New York: Avery, Penguin Random House. Duhigg, C. (2012). The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. New York: Random House. Kotter, J. & Whitehead, L. (2010). Buy-In: Saving Your Good Idea from Getting Shot Down. Boston: Harvard Business Review Press. Pink, D. (2022). The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward. New York: Riverhead Books, Penguin Random House LLC. Schwab, K., & Malleret, T. (2020). COVID-19: The Great Reset, Forum Publishing.

About the Author Paul G. Young, Ph.D., is retired from professional service as a teacher, Lancaster elementary school principal, afterschool program director, and an adjunct professor at Ohio University-Lancaster. He served as president of the Ohio Association of Elementary School Administrators (OAESA), the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP), and as President & CEO of the National AfterSchool Association (NAA). He is the author of numerous books and articles for principals, teachers, aspiring teachers, and afterschool professionals. He is a frequent presenter at OAESA, NAESP, Ohio Music Education Association, and the Ohio Afterschool Network conferences. He can be reached at paulyoungohio@ gmail.com and on Twitter at @paulyoungohio.

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